Sunday, June 13, 2010

Inching Closer

Just wrapping up a nice 18 day training binge (275 miles in 18 days with 2 days completely off so only 16 days of running) before a two week taper leading up to Western States. Got in a 40 miler yesterday and then a tough 13 miles early this morning. I was surprised to feel pretty strong and fresh after 53 miles in 23 hours.

I leave Juneau on Thursday of this week to head down to California where I will spend 9 days leading up to the race trying to acclimatize to the heat and elevation. I'm really excited to spend 9 days camping in the Sierra's with no agenda - just sleeping a lot, running a bit, eating everything in sight, and trying to stay nice and relaxed about June 26th. Maybe I'll even find some time to catch up on some reading that I've more or less completely neglected ever since the weather here in Alaska got nice about a month ago and stayed that way until 3 days ago. I don't even want to talk about what the weather has done here in the last 3 days. If you haven't lived in Southeast Alaska you probably wouldn't understand anyway.

You'd think I'd have more to say about Western States just two weeks from the big day. Truth is though I haven't spent too much time thinking about it. Running 100 miles is hard enough on the day of the race so I try not to make it even harder by focusing too much on it before race day. My plan is to show up on the morning of the 26th ready to run all day through some beautiful mountains and canyons. Maybe I'll even be fortunate enough to get to the finish line in Auburn before anyone else that day, but I certainly can think of dozens of scenarios in which I don't get there first but still have an entirely satisfying day of running. There's something special about running 100 miles that can trump the competitive outcome of the race entirely... or at least I presume this to be the case, but having "won" every 100 I've ever run it's maybe hard for me to say this with any credibility. At any rate, I feel very prepared for the possiblity of not winning this race. Now I just need to see if I can find a way in the next two weeks to prepare myself for the possibility of winning it.

I love your attitude, Geoff. It's great that you and Tony and Hal and a bunch of other really super-talented runners are coming together this year. But with that outlook, I guess you'll "win," no matter what. Good luck and have a great, fun week+ and race!

Hahaha Shawn. Definitely do not listen to Dad (even with GPS)! I love you Dad, but you know it's true ;)Shawn, you and Brian were amazing at Bear Mountain-just have a repeat performance of that and you guys will be great!